Quick Way to Raise Credit Scores

Jack - Glad to help out.

Mike - There's no question it seems like the deck is stacked against the consumer when it comes to credit scoring.

If someone gets their credit limit lowered, it will usually lower their score because it raises the utilization ratio.  I think the best thing to do is to be proactive and keep using all the accounts.  Banks don't like people to have lots of available credit that they aren't using, but they will typically not lower the limits if you do use the cards every month.  You don't need to charge a lot or even carry a balance.  A tank of gas will do the trick.  If someone doesn't have much available credit at all after the limits are lowered, then they should either apply for a new card or get a secured credit card.  As far as the re-pulling of credit goes, that has much less of an effect than most people think.  I personally have never seen anyone's credit drop by more than a few points because of credit pulls.  I think most people assume it was the credit pulls that lowered the score, but it was really something else.  Creditors are not required to report things at any particular time, so many times new info is on the report since the last pull.

Unfortunately, there is so much nonsense on the Internet regarding credit scores, many people make bad decisions based on erroneous information.

Stefan - The credit agencies (Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax) will update the scores immediately after the creditor reports any payments, but the creditors are under no obligation to report the payments at any particular time.  It could be a day, a month, 2 months - whatever is most convenient for the creditor.  However, a lender can order a rapid re-score and update the credit scores.  That usually doesn't take more than 3 days.  To do that, the lender will need documentation from the creditor showing that the balance has been lowered.  A consumer cannot order a rapid re-score themselves.  It must be done by whoever pulled the credit report in the first place.  The charge for the re-score is about $30 per bureau, per account.  If one account needs to be updated by all three bureaus, then it would cost about $90.  This can get expensive quickly, depending on the number of accounts that need to be updated, so it is only recommended when the scores need to be updated immediately.